Do You Really Want to be Doing this When You're 50?

Post by rkwz » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 2:24 AM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #224

tptacek wrote: post #204

Please note extremely effective demonstration of "privilege". Two employee candidates interview successively. One is 25, the other 53. Both are comparably conversant in technology, evince comparable cognitive capability, are equivalently literate in the problem domain being tackled by the role they're interviewing for. Privilege: the 25 year old is not asked (overtly or subtextually) whether they "want to be doing th…

It's about the rate of change. Luthiers are practicing an art that would be recognizable to Stradivari, three hundred years ago. The tools are made of more modern materials but they're basically the same. The product has a more modern design (both functionally and stylistically) but is basically the same. More importantly, the culture and business of instrument-making is largely the same. You have a shop in your gara…

Post by pradocchia » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 3:11 AM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #60

57, programming for 33 years with hardly a day off, and having more fun than ever. My motivation? It's not about the technology, the tools, the apps, the business, the customers, or even the money, although any of those can provide plenty of motivation. And believe it or not, it's not even about the happy dance feeling I get when something I built works for the first time. It's about the achievements of those who use…

Post by bshock » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 4:42 AM UTC

Post by brc » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 4:53 AM UTC

127001brewer wrote: post #98

daliusd wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it is about achievements of your paying customers using your technology business's apps you wrote using tools at your hand. Simply put you are happy that you have created something useful to others or there is something more?

My father worked with his hands for his entire working life; at the time, he tells me, he worked on the U.S. Coast Guard Eagle more than anyone else (such as replacing the entire decking, etc). It's something that he's extremely proud of and something he can actually show his grandchildren. On the other hand, I build things that are, for the most part, abstract and virtual . I enjoy what I do because it allows me to…

Post by robryan » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 8:57 AM UTC

fooandbarify wrote: post #157

Wintamute wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it makes more sense to start measuring from the time you started professionally programming ... so if the 57 year old parent has been programming for 33 years that suggests that he's measuring from when he left full time education (24). My apologies if you've been coding professionally since you were 9 though :)

I wouldn't put it past gliese1337. I turned 24 yesterday, and I can honestly tell clients that I've been programming professionally for over a decade. (Obviously, my abilities/standards have changed since then, and so have my rates... hopefully that trend will continue!)